World Vision, Tom Minnery and Appeasement Theology

I was too busy to weigh in on the World Vision scandal when Dr. Michael Brown broke the story this week (though he was not credited when it went viral). His brilliant commentary and analysis is a must-read:

Now, predictably, there has been a “reversal” of the World Vision decision to embrace same-sex “marriage,” after what I expect was a “vision” of bankruptcy when the boycott calls started flooding in to their switchboards.

I say predictably, because any clear-thinking person could have told Richard Stearns and the other leaders at World Vision that Bible-believing Christians (a substantial part of their donor-base) were never going to accept this betrayal of Bible truth.

What has been unmistakably revealed in this scandal is that the leadership at World Vision does not hold a Biblical worldview. We’ve had clues of that from the organization’s increasing hostility to Israel in recent years (just do an internet search on World Vision and anti-Semitism), and from Stearn’s increasingly accommodative comments on LGBT issues (see Dr. Brown’s article).

So why is Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family rushing in to help them with damage control? “We were grateful to learn that this organization, which has done so much for so many over the years has reversed itself and will maintain the integrity of its Christian principles,” said Minnery. Integrity of its Christian principles? You first have to have such principles in order to “maintain” them. These stewards of over a billion dollars annually of God’s money have plainly shown that they are not following Christian principles but “Gay Theology,” the chief heresy of our age.

I’ve had my disagreements with Tom Minnery, but I consider him a Christian brother. I know that he does not embrace this “gay” heresy, himself. Neither am I putting myself on the same level with him as a cultural influence. He is one of the most powerful men in Christendom today, while I run a humble inner-city mission church with a maximum capacity of 45. Yet in Christ we are equals and I do not hesitate to suggest that his approach to this scandal is a form of appeasement, and is representative of a widely-held but fundamentally flawed mindset that has brought the American pro-family movement to the edge of extinction. We’ve adopted humanistic public-relations strategies in place of the powerful but unpopular truth of God, and, especially in this case, confused mercy with permissiveness.

World Vision has blatantly betrayed Christ and His Word. Its leaders should not be restored to Christian fellowship without repentance, which in this case would mean at minimum a clear repudiation of the reasoning that led them to embrace “gay marriage.”

When you find out that the funny-looking “sheep” is actually a wolf in a nice wool jacket, you don’t put him back in with the flock.

Last June I warned that the “gays” had completed their 40-year takedown of all secular resistance to their agenda with their 2013 conquest of the Boy Scouts of America (it began in ’73 with their conquest of the American Psychiatric Association), and that all of their battle-hardened cultural warriors and war machinery would now be turned against the church. I warned that their primary weapon would be “Gay Theology.” http://www.scottlively.net/2013/06/23/a-warning-to-the-church-in-america/

One week later Alan Chambers shut down Exodus International, a global coordinator of independent ex-“gay” ministries, apologizing for ever having said homosexuals could change. His embrace of “Gay Theology” led him to repudiate 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 which says that former homosexuals who had been healed by Christ were part of the early church. Fortunately, a new umbrella group, Restored Hope Network has replaced Exodus and the work of helping homosexuals recover continues.

That was just the first salvo in what I believe is the final battle for Christian civilization in America: the battle for the church itself. Since then there have been many attacks, the most recent (before World Vision) being Dan Cathy of Chick Fil A appearing in the Atlanta Journal Constitution with the homosexual leader of “Campus Pride,” saying his statements in support of Biblical marriage in 2012 was a business mistake. http://americansfortruth.com/2014/03/22/chick-fil-a-ceo-dan-cathy-sells-out-heeds-advice-of-gay-activist/ This was no less a blow to the pro-family movement than the betrayal of Benedict Arnold in the Revolutionary War.

In the comments section under my article blasting Cathy’s selfishness, Christians were rushing to his defense, saying he needed to be restored to fellowship. Of course he should be restored, AFTER he has repented of his sin.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, please awaken to the seriousness of our situation. The enemy is over the wall and fighting in our back yard. The tactics of trying to appease them by secularizing our arguments, dodging media criticism, acting “nicer than Jesus,” and compromising our values to keep the peace have not stopped them yet and won’t stop them now.

The answer to “Gay Theology” is not “Appeasement Theology.” The answer is the restoration of Masculinity in the church. We are at war and we need to step up and push back the antichrists wherever they intrude into the church. Richard Stearns needs to convince us that he understands why his actions were wrong before he receives another cent from Christians. Dan Cathy needs to convince us that standing for the truth of the Bible is more important that being allowed to put his restaurants on college campuses before we give him back our trust. We of the Bible-believing remnant need to start pressuring everyone who purports to speak for us to get off the defensive and start articulating the whole truth of God on this issue — regardless of the price they will pay for doing so!

The time for hiding behind the timid and tepid “defense of marriage” strategy and refusing to identify homosexual conduct and militancy as the problem is over, or our movement is over. God’s Word is our most powerful shield and sword. Let’s drop all of the human-driven philosophy of politics and public debate and put our trust in His plain truth backed by our zeal. If you can’t articulate and defend the Biblical worldview you have no business in Christian leadership.